The future is now but is it here to stay? Employees’ perspective on working from home

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled the implementation of work from home (WFH) on a global scale. While initial responses to the WFH arrangement have been mixed, a majority of them are negative. However, much is still unknown about the antecedents of work productivity and continuance intention associated with WFH. Hence, this study developed a multi-dimensional research model that comprises of the Protection Motivation Theory, Transactional Theory of Stress, and Status Quo Bias to look into this matter. The responses were collected from employees with WFH experience and analyzed via the Structural Equation Modeling-Artificial Neural Network (SEM-ANN). Interestingly, perceived vulnerability and perceived severity had no significant relationship with continuance intention. Besides, self-efficacy to handle work tasks from home was found to facilitate work productivity. In contrast, technostress was found as an inhibitor of work productivity and continuance intention to WFH. Overall, the employees’ perspective on WFH captured in this study provides great value to organizational stakeholders. This is because companies with good WFH arrangements have a powerful competitive advantage in employee recruitment and retention.